In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, there are two types of network architectures: a centralized architecture and a distributed architecture. For the distributed architecture, a base station includes a baseband function and a radio frequency function. For the centralized architecture, a baseband function is placed in a baseband control unit (baseband control unit function is placed in a remote radio unit (RRU), and the baseband control unit (BBU) and the RRU need to be connected to each other by using large-capacity transmission media such as an optical fiber and a microwave. The foregoing two types of architectures are unrelated to a terminal device. That is, once an architecture is determined, all terminal devices in one cell are scheduled in a distributed manner, or scheduled in a centralized manner. The scheduling means allocation of a radio resource, that is, determining a radio resource to be used for receiving or sending data of the terminal device.
In the distributed architecture, scheduling is scheduling within each base station, an effect of coordination between cross-base station cells is not good, and interference between the cross-base station cells is relatively great, causing a throughput of a terminal device at an edge of a cell to decrease. However, an advantage of the distributed architecture is that a bandwidth of a transmission network is saved. Because the BBU and the RRU are integrated, no additional transmission network (Fronthaul) is needed. An advantage of the centralized architecture is that system performance is good. Because radio resources of a plurality of cells are scheduled in a centralized manner (for example, by using a CoMP technology), radio resource coordination between the plurality of cells is implemented, interference is reduced and a throughput of a user at an edge of a cell is increased. However, the BBU is separated from the RRU. Because data that has been processed by a physical (PHY) layer is transmitted between the BBU and the RRU, a large quantity of data needs to be transmitted on a transmission network (generally referred to as Fronthaul) between the BBU and the RRU, a very large number of bandwidths is required. Further, if a frequency bandwidth supported by a cell is increased, more data needs to be sent through an air interface, and a bandwidth requirement of a corresponding transmission network also increased accordingly, bringing heavy pressure to a bandwidth of the transmission network.
In the prior art, the distributed architecture cannot coexist with the centralized architecture. Therefore, it cannot be implemented that system performance is ensured through centralized scheduling at the same time when a bandwidth requirement of a transmission network is reduced through distributed scheduling. The distributed architecture cannot coexist with the centralized architecture mainly due to that if a plurality of nodes are responsible for scheduling a radio resource of one node or a radio resource of one cell, a same transmission resource are scheduled by different nodes, causing a conflict between scheduled resources.